Asus Zenfone Max review

Introduction

It may not be the fastest ride – and it sure ain’t the hottest – but it comes with a full tank and mileage to spare. 5,000 milliamp-hours… That’s more juice than many tablets get and enough to charge 3 iPhone 6’s. The Asus Zenfone Max is no joke when it gets to battery backup. But it’s a smartphone in its own right – an affordable midranger at that.

It has a 5.5-inch display with Gorilla Glass 4, and although the resolution is rather low at 720p, we can see how 1080p would have cost more and required more processing power – neither of which fits with the Max’s main purpose: endurance.

The Snapdragon 410 doing the math is by no means a record breaker, but a decent chipset that carries dual-SIM support, LTE and 1080p video recording. With 2GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable inbuilt storage, the Max has the basics covered.

On the other hand, the 13MP laser autofocus camera from the Zenfone Laser and Zenfone Selfie didn’t fall victim to budget and longevity constraints. On the front there’s a 5MP wide-angle shooter, bright aperture too.

Main disadvantages

Weak 1A charger in the box

Launches on Lollipop

Rather low resolution for the screen size

Battery is non-removable

Perhaps the non-removable battery complaint is shaky when you simply have so much of it. Well, the plain 1A charger does become an issue then, even more so considering the chipset does support Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 but hey, the phone comes quite reasonably priced and an extra quick charger won’t break the bank.